Trump: I discussed ‘impenetrable cybersecurity unit’ with Putin

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Sunday that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin talked about “forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit” to safeguard against election-hacking when the two leaders met in Germany last week.

Trump tweeted Sunday that he “strongly pressed” Putin twice during their two-hour conclave at the G-20 summit in Hamburg on Friday.

“He vehemently denied it. I’ve already given my opinion,” Trump said.

It’s unclear, however, what the president’s opinion is. He told reporters on Thursday in Warsaw, Poland, that while he thinks Russia meddled in the 2016 election, “I think it could have been other people and other countries,” adding that “a lot of people” could have interfered.

Providing his own readout of his meeting with Putin in a string of Sunday morning tweets, Trump said the two negotiated a life-saving ceasefire in Syria but didn’t discuss sanctions. “Nothing,” he said, “will be done until the Ukrainian and Syrian problems are solved!”

Trump also declared that the time is now for the U.S. “to move forward in working constructively with Russia!” — including, apparently, on preventing election meddling and cyberattacks with the adversarial government the U.S. intelligence community pinpointed as the culprit behind interfering in the past presidential campaign to boost Trump over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded and safe,” Trump said, quickly turning his attention to the Democratic National Committee and his predecessor, Barack Obama.

“Questions were asked about why the CIA & FBI had to ask the DNC 13 times for their SERVER, and were rejected, still don’t have it,” he continued. “Fake News said 17 intel agencies when actually 4 (had to apologize). Why did Obama do NOTHING when he had info before election?”

The prospect of partnering with Russia on a cybersecurity unit raised eyebrows, including from Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the Republican nomination. Rubio likened working with the Kremlin to prevent election meddling to partnering with Syrian leader Bashar Assad’s regime on a “Chemical Weapons Unit.” Assad is notorious for using deadly chemical weapons on his people, including children.

“While reality & pragmatism requires that we engage Vladimir Putin, he will never be a trusted ally or a reliable constructive partner,” Rubio said in a tweet. He added in another: “We have no quarrel with Russia or the Russian people. Problem is with Putin & his oppression, war crimes & interference in our elections.”

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F1R5S4

a pity there were no cameras allowed. i always wanted to see putin roll on the floor from laughter.

Posted on 7/9/17 | 8:45 PM CET

Milton38

Why! Is Trump going to take out all the backdoors into the american software, hardware and apps?
That would begin to make IT already a lot safer.

Posted on 7/10/17 | 8:38 AM CET

Milton38

The last line in the penultimate paragraph is absolutely unnecessary.
Consider that the former ally of the USA, Saddam, gassed thousands of Kurds and Iranian soldiers using American gas. Furthermore an independent investigation was blocked by the USA and its lapdog the UK.